Livni Wants to Expel Palestinians to New State

Nov. 19. 2007

Zionist Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said at a press conference on Sunday, November 18, that the future Palestinian state would be a "comprehensive national solution" for all Palestinians, including those currently living within the borders of the State of Israel proper.

The war of words over the cultural-ethnic nature of the State of Israel began last week when Prime Minister Ehud Olmert demanded that the Palestinian Authority's Annapolis negotiating team recognize Israel as a Jewish country.

PA negotiators refused to recognize this, explaining that they need not recognize anything more than Israel's political definition as a country. "I know why you want us to say it's purely Jewish," PA negotiator Yasser Abed Rabbo said, "in order to make sure there is no room for any refugees. Why should I do that?"

The demand for Arab recognition of Israel as a Jewish state was indeed made in order to protect Israel from a deluge of Arab refugees and their descendants, which would endanger Israel's status as a Jewish homeland.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni then fired the next volley, saying at a Sunday afternoon press conference, "It must be clear that Israel is a national home for the Jewish People, and that it is a democratic, Jewish state. Every person elected to the Knesset must accept these principles."

Livni further said, "The Palestinian state to be established will not be a solution just for the Palestinians who live in the West Bank. It is designed to provide a comprehensive national solution - for those living in the West Bank, and the refugees camps, and even for the [Arab] citizens of Israel."

Labor MK Ophir Pines called on Livni to retract her words, saying, "The solution for the Arab refugees is certainly a Palestinian state, but it is not a solution for the Arabs of Israel. I intend to raise the matter for an urgent debate in the Knesset this week."

Arab MK Muhammed Barakeh said, "This is an escalation of the chutzpah of Livni and her government. The Palestinian Arabs are living in their homeland; they never immigrated anywhere, but rather Israel immigrated to them."

Arab MK Ahmed Tibi said about the demand to recognize Israel as Jewish, "This is an incredulous demand rooted in inter-party rivalry... or an evil and brazen demand. Her grave remarks reveal her extremist face. She is preparing the way for the expulsion of as many Arab citizens as possible, in order to keep Israel Jewish and without Arabs... These dangerous remarks are reminiscent of Lieberman and Kahane... The Arabs were here before Mrs. Livni and will remain here after her."

The Torah forbids Jews to have their own state in all or part of the Holy Land (or anywhere else). The positive aspect of the current peace process is that it promises to remove Jewish control from part of the land. Although a smaller Zionist state would obviously still not be in keeping with Torah law, it would at least be a positive step.

But now the Israeli leaders are revealing the negative side of this step: that they plan to use the proposed Palestinian state as an excuse to ethnically cleanse the Zionist state and make it more Jewish. Large-scale expulsion of Palestinians from their homes would take place, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees who would continue to be barred from returning to their original land, now with a new argument: "Go to the Palestinian state!" And all this in the name of ensuring that the Zionist state be a Jewish state!

Torah Jews are horrified and ashamed of these brazen statements made by the Israelis. They may talk about making their state "Jewish" but in fact their notion that Jews have the right to expel non-Jews is the very antithesis of Jewish conduct as practiced throughout centuries of exile, and continued by hundreds of thousands of traditional Jews today. These non-Zionist Jews have no desire to rule over gentiles or to dictate to them where they should or should not live.

Furthermore, the Zionists' statements endanger Jews worldwide, because if Israelis can tell Palestinians to go live in the Palestinian state, what is to stop other countries from telling their Jews to go live in the "Jewish state"?

All loyal Jews who are concerned about the misrepresentation of Judaism, as well as about the safety of their Jewish brethren everywhere, must protest against this Zionist rhetoric in the strongest of terms.